Audrey's Birthday - Take 1

Had to open presents before her dad went out of town...

Valentine Party

We were invited to a Valentine's Party by the Bouviers and Freedlands. Boy do they know how to throw a bash! There was plenty of food - meatballs, chips/dip, cocktail wieners, chocolate fountain with angel food cake and fruit plus all the treats each couple brought (Carter, Gonzalez, Spear, Whalen, Adamson, Freedland, Bouvier, Murray, and a neighbor couple).

One of the first games was set up like The Dating Game, where the women were asked to answer some questions and then the men came in and gave what their responses were. And then the men had answered questions and we gave our responses. I cannot remember all the questions, but below are a few of them:

What she wore on our first date - this was easy for the newlywed couple who had only been married for 2 months, but for us that was 23+ years ago! John figured it was jeans and a blouse since we had gone to Kelly's at the State Line to dance. Wow he had a good memory! I had actually forgotten that was our first date.

Wife's Favorite dish - my problem here was I did not know my own favorite dish, so just said stroganoff. When John gave his answer (Chicken Osaka) I would have to agree that he did know which was my favorite dish!!

Favorite trip - this was extremely hard. We actually both had the same answer - all of them! We think fondly back on all our trips because we were together. Hawaii, Florida, Bahamas, New England, Disneyland, Utah, Seattle, Portland, etc.

How many pairs of shoes does she have...da-da-dum. Poor guy. I was embarrassed to actually put the real answer, so I under-bid. John gave a closer-to-real answer so we would have gotten a point if I had been more accurate. Check out these bad boys I bought right before Valentine's if you have any idea how much I love shoes!!


Then we had a different question and answer session - questions like who was married on or closest to an official holiday (Day after Thanksgiving for us); who has the closest birth dates (11 days apart for us); who gave the most creative Valentine gift to their spouse (when John had Stephanie Vigil, a local TV anchor, deliver chocolate covered strawberries to me at work); and which couple looks the most alike (we actually got a point on this as others think we look alike).

What a fun party!!

Chocolate Cherry Cake

For the Valentine's party we were invited to, we were to bring our spouses favorite dessert. John always raves about Chocolate Cherry cake when he has at potlucks, so I decided to make this for him.

CHOCOLATE CHERRY CAKE
1 package Triple Chocolate Fudge cake mix
21 ounce can cherry pie filling
1 teaspoon almond extract
4 eggs
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a jelly roll pan. In a bowl combine cake mix, cherry pie filling, almond extract and eggs. Stir until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until tests done. Cool.

FROSTING
1 cup sugar
5 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup milk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
In a saucepan, combine sugar, butter and milk. Boil, stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in chocoalte chips until smooth. Immediately pour over partially cooled cake.

Variation: Use a white cake mix, blueberry filling, vanilla extract and add 1/2 tsp of lemon zest to batter. For frosting use white chocolate chips and more lemon zest.

Crock Pot Barbecue Chicken & Oven Fries

CROCK POT BARBECUE CHICKEN
4 chicken breasts
18oz bottle barbecue sauce
1/2 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. Italian dressing
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
Hamburger Buns

Place the chicken in crock pot. In a bowl mix BBQ sauce, brown sugar, Italian dressing and Worcestershire sauce together. Pour over chicken and set on high for 3-4 hours. Once chicken is fork tender, shred.

OVEN FRIES
2-3 large baking potatoes
1 & 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 Tbsp. white sugar
1 tsp Olive oil
Wash, dry and cut raw potatoes into large pieces, steak fry size. (NOTE: Make them "even" so the cooking is more uniform and maybe closer to the smaller size so they are actually done in 30 minutes). Place cut potatoes into a large resealable plastic bag. Add salt, pepper, sugar and oil. Seal closed and shake until all pieces are completely coated. Cover a baking sheet with foil and place potatoes onto sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for about 30 minutes or until fries are tender and brown. (Note: I could taste the sugar when we ate the potatoes and thought it a little odd. I'm sure it is part of the crisping process, but maybe less sugar?)

Last New Beginnings

Tonight Audrey went to her "last" New Beginnings. She was in charge of the sound (both the background music and bringing the CD music for one of the musical numbers). They had a Princess Pajama theme - so most of the girls and leaders wore PJ's and brought pillows and sat on the floor during the program. Each topic was presented by a short Disney-princess story - so Knowledge was Belle from Beauty & the Beast, for instance. Then the Bishop got up and did a great tie-in by speaking of his own princess (his wife) and what an inspiration she is to him and their family. Afterwards they gave each girl a pillow case (saving a dark purple/black one especially for Audrey). Then they served cinnamon rolls and milk. Yum!

Buttermilk Syrup

I have not tried it yet, but this is the recipe I got from the Senior Brunch.

BUTTERMILK SYRUP
1 cube butter
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda

Bring the first three ingredients to a boil and boil for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add vanilla and baking soda. Stir and Serve.

Mother/Daughter Brunch and Symphony

Today Audrey and I went to the Senior Laurel's Mother & Daughter Brunch at the Stake Center. This was put on my the Stake Relief Society to welcome all new seniors into Relief Society, either when they turned 18 or when they graduated. It was a wonderful program. We started by having brunch: A Waffle Bar! There was a delicious syrup served that we will have to try at home. Then they had a short program. The theme was "The Snowball Effect" and the room was decorated in silvers and blues. The first speaker (Letha Adams) spoke about how you need a good base of snow to enjoy skiing, and she suggested that our base is something we should always be working on. Then Stacy Julian spoke and shared how the Mommy Blogs are popular with non-LDS folks because we seem happy and with it. But we actually are happy and with it because we know about the gospel. Then Whitney Gummersall concluded. I sure love her! She is so "real" and I made it very interesting for the seniors to want to join the "club"! She talked about how it does not matter what your age is - we have friends in Relief Society who are 25 and 75. And it is a wonderful sisterhood to belong to. Then we did a service project for the Ronald McDonald House before heading home. Look what they made each girl - a SnowBall Ornament:
That evening mom and I had tickets to the symphony - Rodgers and Hammerstein music sung by vocalists Teri Hansen and Nat Chandler. They entered the theatre from the back and stopped to shake hands with audience members, including me because I always have the aisle seat. Fun night listening to music from Carousel, State Fair, The King and I, South Pacific, Sound of Music and Oklahoma!